State Farm® Endorses Business Roundtable Climate Change Statement
Bloomington, Illinois, July 17, 2007 -- State Farm Insurance, a long-time member of The Business Roundtable, fully supports the organization’s climate change statement released today. In that statement, the Roundtable said there is increasing evidence that the earth’s climate has been warming over the last century” and added “greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere have increased.” (www.businessroundtable.org).
“As the largest insurer of homes in the U. S., State Farm is very concerned about natural and man-made causes of property damage,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward B. Rust Jr., who is co-chairman of the Roundtable.
State Farm is involved in broad-based efforts to help its customers manage these losses. The Company works with organizations all across the country – such as the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and ProtectingAmerica.org – to help protect its customers from the injuries, property destruction and the financial impact that result from natural disaster.
In addition, State Farm has taken aggressive steps to protect the environment by reducing its own GHG emissions. As a member of the Business Roundtable Climate RESOLVE Initiative since 2002, State Farm voluntarily reports its progress on managing GHG emissions. The Company has:
- Reduced its emissions per policy in force by 35 percent (far exceeding the Business Roundtable goal of an 18 percent reduction by 2012)
- Greatly improved the energy efficiency rating of its buildings (State Farm’s buildings are more efficient than 73 percent of comparable buildings, compared with 49 percent in 1999)
- Implemented an electronic claims system that significantly reduces the use of paper
- Adopted a companywide recycling program that includes thousands of computers per year
In an effort to reduce gasoline consumption, State Farm has reduced the size of its fleet of motor vehicles, and has included in that fleet about 100 new hybrid vehicles, 3,000 flexible fuel vehicles and an increasing percentage of vehicles with four cylinder engines.
State Farm® insures more cars than any other insurer in North America and is the leading U.S. home insurer. State Farm's 17,000 agents and 68,000 employees serve over 75 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.7 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 31 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®. |
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